Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers returned to the bargaining table last week under federal mediation after the government declined Canada Post’s request to pursue a forced vote of union members on its May 30 “best and final” offer.

At the request of Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hajdu, both parties are working with federal mediators to negotiate terms for an arbitration process and reach a settlement on a new labor contract.

The sides remain far apart on a collective bargaining agreement after 18 months of talks, a 32-day strike during the holidays late last year and mail carriers refusing to work overtime in response to Canada Post’s final offer. The escalation in rhetoric has amplified anxiety among individual and business users who rely on Canada Post for letter mail and parcel delivery services, especially with union members having previously authorized a strike. Canada Post has said the uncertainty about postal continuity resulted in a 65% decline in parcel volumes year over year in early June.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) on Tuesday filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Canada Post for allegedly bargaining directly with members, knowingly interfering with the union’s exclusive bargaining rights and purposefully trying to discredit the union.

According to the CUPW, the state-owned post office provided offers and information to union members without providing documentation to the union leadership. It also used captive audience meetings, videos, press releases, portable data terminals and QR codes to direct union members to Canada Post’s negotiations page on its website in an effort to bypass the union. The CUPW accused Canada Post of leaking information to the press as well.

The union asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order Canada Post to stop the alleged interference and assess damages that would be paid to the union and members.

Canada Post is pressing the union to accept a series of changes to operations and work conditions it says are needed to turn around years of financial losses as mail and parcel volumes shrink. Canada Post’s mail volumes have plummeted 70% over 20 years due to digital communications, while the number of addresses served has increased by 3.3 million. At the same time, its market share in parcels has been cut in half in a few short years.

Parcel revenue declined by 20.3% in 2024 as volumes fell by 56 million pieces, or 20%, compared to 2023, according to Canada Post’s annual report. Parcel revenue and volumes declined largely due to the strike in the fourth quarter and competitive pressures from other carriers, including new low-cost entrants like Uni Uni.

Sticking Points

One of the top Canada Post demands is for a part-time workforce to do weekend delivery. Under the proposal, weekend workers would be scheduled for 15 hours per week, mostly on the weekend. Canada Post could add more hours to the workers’ schedules during peak periods. The CUPW objects because it says the proposal would essentially eliminate overtime for full-time mail carriers as part-timers with flexible schedules would be offered more hours. The union also doesn’t like that management would have power to build routes on a daily basis based on volumes or other conditions rather than use fixed routes, which it argues could lead some carriers to have larger workloads that impact health and safety.

Canada Post also wants the ability to hire part-time flex positions. These mail carriers would be scheduled for 20 hours per week, Monday through Friday, but could be forced to work up to 30 hours per week. At that point, the flex carriers could volunteer to work up to 40 hours in a week. The postal operator wants up to 15% of mail carriers based at a postal installation to be flex workers. The flex workers would not own a route. Instead they would be used to cover absences or assigned to other letter carrier work. The union complains that the flexible schedule means workers would have difficulty managing work-life balance and that it wouldn’t have any oversight over management assignments. Adding flex workers would also mean fewer hours for existing part-timers, all but eliminating overtime for full-timers, and fewer full-time floaters who normally fill in for absent workers.

The CUPW is also unhappy with Canada Post’s proposal to test dynamic routing in 10 locations. Dynamic routing, which is used by private sector couriers, would allow the postal operator to plan and optimize delivery routes based on volumes, delivery addresses and pickup. The system will require a large investment in technology over several years to implement across the nation. Canada Post says it needs to make changes to the labor agreement, including the definition of an assignment, automatic volume updates, and start and departure times for mail carriers.

The union says Canada Post ultimately wants to get rid of the letter carrier route management system, a piece of software that calculates routes for each letter carrier. Under a dynamic routing model, computer software would be used to build delivery routes on a daily basis. Carriers would no longer own a specific route. Instead, they’d own a schedule and be assigned to a general geographic area.

The new software would determine the order by which carriers would perform their tasks, and carriers would have to follow the instructions given to them through their portable data terminal. The CUPW says dynamic routing is intended to squeeze as much work out of carriers as possible during an eight-hour shift, resulting in an unbearable pace for workers over the long term.

Canada Post wants to get rid of the five-minute wash up time before the meal period “to reduce unproductive time.” The CUPW says this is a health and safety issue because carriers handle everything from live animals to medical materials. “Our hands and clothes are filthy, and we need time to clean up before eating,” it says in a fact sheet.

Another pending change is load leveling, which would allow management to shift work from one route to another to even the workload and reduce the need for overtime. Under the proposal, according to the CUPW, letter carriers who have completed routes or duties in less than their scheduled hours could be assigned additional work outside their route without additional pay. The union says routes are currently built in the route management and work measurement systems using agreed-upon standards to ensure a fair distribution of work. “Load levelling would give supervisors far too much power to reassign work at their whim, opening up more opportunities for supervisors to play favourites or bully and harass members on the workfloor,” it said in the fact sheet.

Canada Post has proposed that future employees be eligible for the pension and benefits only after they have worked for six consecutive months as a regular employee.

On wages, Canada Post has offered a 13.6% increase over four years, starting with a 6% increase in the first year. The union says 6% isn’t a serious offer because Canada Post raised wages by almost 5% in 2023 as a cost-of-living adjustment due to inflation.

Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.

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